On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Carol Ely <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I understand the legal and other issues that can come up with an unaccompanied young child - but older children can be quite responsible and happy museum goers. How do you distinguish? What age is the cut-off?

It's still a legal issue if that child is a minor. I too went to
museums by myself as a kid but that was 30 years ago and times have
changed. Plus how many unaccompanied kids can your museum accomodate
before it becomes a day care? I used to work at a nature center, which
was next to a rec center with a drop off program. I was one of two
staff during the day. Kids from the rec center would come over and
play in our center. This wasn't an issue if they were playing nicely
but we could only handle so many kids at a time. When it got too
crowded, we could boot them back to rec center. If you don't have that
option, what do you do? And trust me, once people know they can drop
off their kid at your museum, they will start taking advantage of it.

You could have a policy where kids have to sign in and you keep info
on them on file but that opens up another legal can of worms. Plus you
might get hit with daycare laws and that's more rules and regs and
training and certifications, etc. etc. It's just best to have a no
unaccompanied minors policy. When doubt, check with your house council
if you really want to know all the legal fall out

Deb Fuller

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